It should be noted that Arab culture does not have the same ideas of identity that Western culture has. Arab culture is far more nuanced, with a very strong nuclear family bond (Aile, this bond is strong enough to warrant and excuse honor killings), a very strong bond with cousins (Hamule), a strong tribal bond, and lessening and lessening bonds the further out one goes. The expression "My brother before my cousin, my cousin before my tribe, ..." has many variations describing Arab loyalty.
The Western idea that the human is the atomic unit to be punished is not universal. Some societies even today "punish" the the hand that stole by amputation, for example.
I was discussing honour killings very recently with one of my Arab neighbours. The conversation started with him explaining to me that when security forces need to arrest a Beduin they don't use the local police, rather an Arab from the north (he lives just outside Beersheba, in the south of Israel). This is because the unit of "personality" is not the single body, but instead the family. So any local Beduin who arrests another Beduin would have his family endangered. They don't care about hurting a specific person - they care about the family as a whole.
He also mentioned that this is the reason behind the honour killings. It doesn't matter if the family looses a single member of the family - because that is not the unit of personality that is important to them. The honour of the entire family is more important. And other things reflect this as well - he says that every single day one family shoots at another family, it is never in the news because who outside knows about it? Even if there are injuries, though usually there are not. He says that these attacks against the families are effective at keeping the other family's members from attacking your own family's interests. I did not ask what those interests are.
I could ask him about the home demolitions. I could definitely see that as being connected to the idea that the Aile or Hamule is punished, not just the person. And it is well established that the home demolitions are an effective deterrent against further terrorist bombings (which themselves are rarely publicized or condemned in international media for some reason - only the response which destroys property is).
> The Western idea that the human is the atomic unit to be punished is not universal.
The idea hasn't always been universal in the West either. In WW2, the German army sometimes chose to kill the entire male population of a city in retaliation for attacks on German officers.
See e.g. https://ww2gravestone.com/the-putten-raid-dutch-razzia-van-p...
Interesting explanation. Let's hope Arab culture can soon leave these ridiculous justifications for despicable acts like honor killings behind and may Jamal spend the rest of his life behind bars for dumping his 16 years old niece's body in to a canal for wanting to elope with the wrong person.
> these ridiculous justifications for despicable acts
Arguably western culture had just as many ridiculous justifications for despicable acts. Their culture is different, but don't be fooled into thinking that it is inferior.
